Industrial Workers of the World One Big Union

We working people want to see results. What we need to realise is that we, ourselves, are the only ones who can get the results we want: Improvement. Change. Hope of change.

The IWW is rooted in the lessons of its own experience. With 101 years of it we have a bit to draw on. And we have big goals.

• We want the abolition of capitalism and wage slavery.
• We want a safe environment and a sustainable planet.
• We want to end patriarchy.
• We want the human family to overcome its racism, hatreds and blood feuds.
• We want everyone to live healthy lives and fulfil their potential - in each life lies the seeds of a new world.
• We want solidarity to become a guiding principle in everyone's lives.

The IWW has been around for over 100 years, but the Wobblies aren't experts: we're not 'silver bullet' labour consultants or 'professional' organisers. And we're not going to organise anyone who doesn't want to organise themselves.

We're just ordinary working people who do what working people do best. Learn and Adapt. Fight back. Persist impatiently. Agitate. Organise.

In order to organise, you need to approach people from their own point of view. There is no point in preaching about a revolutionary pie in the sky: you may as well talk about UFOs.

We want people to learn from experience. And the only experience that matters is for each person to tackle how the current order erodes their daliy lives, in their workplaces and in their communities.

The IWW wants people to understand that the ruling class will make all of the choices that the working class abandons or refuses to make.

So when people want results, the first thing an IWW organiser will say to people is: "What do you plan to do?" Simply handing this responsibility to people makes them realise they do have a choice. An IWW orgnaniser presents options based on their experience and knowledge - but only the people who will face any consequences have the right to choose what they will do.

A Thousand Small Victories Waiting

A revolution comes through many small victories. In one of my workplaces, part-time workers lobbied for six months to get a microwave. The reason was simple: we wanted to eat affordable, home cooked meals. When the boss had it bought, the workers then had to lobby to open it up. But this simple way of improving people's working conditions was on the bottom of the boss' list. Our interests didn't coincide. One day, I was hungry, had a meal that would taste better heated, and unpacked the microwave. Yum. By setting up that microwave, I made my life better and improved others' lives as they started to use it.

There are a thousand small victories waiting for us. We need to identify working people's interests, overcome our fears and take small risks to benefit ourselves and start building solidarity on the job.

Open Yourself to Solidarity

At another small workplace, contract renewals were always done on the sly and individually. We workers knew the company was in trouble, so when we individually found wording changed on our new contracts that re-classed some workers as part-time, alarm bells rang. Cautiously at first, we asked each other if anybody had the same changes. We compared our contracts, identified our common issues and came up with a plan. We demanded a staff meeting.

Although we didn't have everybody on side, we effectively bargained collectively, presented our demands and won. The boss conceded everything we demanded, and we gained a guarantee about better information sharing. When we talked to each other, we opened ourselves to solidarity. And solidarity led to a small victory for us.

Neither of the workplaces I've described above were unionised. Most workplaces today are small to medium-sized and not unionised. The IWW calls this model of informal organising and action as 'solidarity unionism'. By organising a small group of workers to act together to improve these work places, we can give people a view of what is possible and show them that people have the courage to demand change.